Ring traveler



May 29, 1962 STAHLI ETAL 3,036,422

RING TRAVELER Filed April 29, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 6

- D 24 v0 C /3 c: T h [B 1 INVE TORS.

ATTO/P/VEX y 1962 ca. sTAHLl ETAL 3,036,422

RING TRAVELER Filed April 29, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 PRLOR ART INV NTOR5.61/5774 1/ 7" HLI. r KQ/V/PAD HANSEL 5/5:

147 TOR/V5 5 y 29, 1962 G. STAHLI ETAL 3,036,422

RING TRAVELER Filed April 29, 1960 3 sheets sheet 3 Fly. 4'

PRIOR ART INVENTORi GUST/7V jT/qHLl.

KO N/PAD HA'IAISELEP United States Patent Oflice 3,036,422 Patented May29, 1962 The present invention relates to an elongated travelertraveling on a spinning ring around a spindle, the spinning ring havinga flange whose cross sectional configuration corresponds to that knownin Europe as form No. I or No. II which substantially corresponds toforms I and II of the American classification.

These flange shapes are almost exclusively used today. The configurationof flange II is the same as that of flange I, flange II being largerthan flange I. The flange has a head resting on a vertical web havingparallel walls. The head has a horizontal plane top surface. The crosssection of the head is oblong, the long axis being horizontal and theends of the cross section being formed by convex almost completesemicircles whose radii amount to about one half of the verticalthickness of the head. The lower ends of these lateral semicircles areconnected to the web by downwardly slanted lines placed at an angle of100 with respect to the vertical walls of the web.

An appropriate shape of traveler and a suitable adaptation of thecontact surface of the traveler to that of the flange of the spinningring engaged by the traveler as well as optimal quality of the materialof which these parts are made are prerequisite for controlling threadbreakages and wear of the traveler at greatest operating speeds of thelatter. Systematic tests have shown that coordination of the shape ofthe traveler and that of the flange of the spinning ring is closelyrelated to the additional movements of the traveler caused by changingforce exerted by the thread during building up of the cop and to theheat removal from and wear of the cooperating parts. The ideal travelershould be as flat and small as possible and yet have a great crosssection which can be worn ofi. Of great importance is the size andposition of the arc portion of the traveler which guides the thread sothat the position of the traveler is changed very little when thegreatness and direction of the pull of the thread are changed duringbuilding up of the cop. The position and configuration of the legs ofthe traveler must be so coordinated to the flange that, whilemaintaining a minimal freedom of the running surfaces of the legs of thetraveler, i.e. freedom of self-adjustment of the position of thetraveler, the embracement of the ring flange by the traveler is as greatas possible without impairing the stability of movement of the traveler.

The above-discussed requirements are satisfied by the traveler accordingto the invention when traveling on a ring flange having a crosssectional configuration known as form No. I and No. II and describedabove whereby the radius of the arc of the traveler resting on theflange of the spinning ring corresponds to the radius p of the curvatureof the lower inner surface of the ring flange which is the runningsurface, and the arc of the traveler guiding the thread is part of acircle having a radius 2.15 p. The distance between the center of thearc guiding the thread and the center of the arc resting on the ringflange is 1.15 p and the vertical distance of the center of the arcguiding the thread from the radius extending from the center of the arcresting on the ring flange to the upper end of the last mentioned are isabout 0.3 p. In this way, an intermediate inside surface portion of thetraveler is provided between the arc resting on the ring flange and thearc guiding the thread which intermediate surface portion issubstantially parallel to the axis of symmetry of the traveler andprevents clamping of the thread between the ring flange and thetraveler, as happens quite frequently with conventional elliptictravelers which do not have this intermediate surface portion.

With the above-specified size and location of the arc guiding thethread, the resultant of the thread tension whose greatness and positionundulate between two extreme values, produces a constant torque actingon the traveler with respect to the center of gravity of its supportwhereby a noticeable movement of the traveler in addition to itsrotating movement is avoided. The resultant size of the surfaces of thering flange and of the traveler engaging each other is so that there isa sufliciently stable support of the traveler and suflicient heatremoval from the engaging surfaces. Since the travelers with which theinvention is concerned are very small, a 10% deviation of theafore-discussed dimensions below and above the optimal values istenable.

The novel features which are considered characteristic of the inventionare set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The inventionitself, however, and additional objects and advantages thereof will bestbe understood from the following description of embodiments thereof whenread in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a part sectional elevation of a portion of a ring rail onwhich a spinning ring is mounted for guiding a traveler around acopwhich is being built up.

FIG. 2 is a large scale illustration of a conventional (Z-shapedtraveler in operating position on a flange of a spinning ring.

FIG. 3 is a large scale illustration of a different conventionaltraveler.

FIG. 4 is a large scale illustration of a conventional elliptictraveler.

FIG. 5 is a large scale illustration of a traveler according to theinvention in operating position on the flange of a spinning ring.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of the traveler shown in FIG. 5, showingstructural details.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 1 of the drawing, numeral 1designates a traveler traveling on a spinning ring 2 which is mounted inthe conventional manner on a ring rail '3 of a spinning machine. Aflange 4 forming the upper part of the ring 2 has the configurationwhich is known as form number I which has been described above. The ringrail 3 is mounted in the conventional manner on a mechanism, not shown,for moving the rail vertically up and down whereby the extent of themovement corresponds to the height of the conical part 5 of a cop 6. Itis Well known that the forces exerted by the thread on the traveler aregreatest when the thread is wound on the upper part 7 of the conicalportion 5 and are smallest when the thread is Wound at the base 8 of theconical portion 5 of the cop. The resultants of the forces exerted bythe thread on the traveler change as to greatness and direction duringthe winding operation and definitely define the position of the travelerat every moment. The extreme positions of the travelers shown in FIGS. 2to 5 and running on a flange number I are indicated by solid lines andby dash-dot lines. The thread is not shown in these figures.

The G-shaped traveler 9 shown in FIG. 2 is considerably tilted andengages two surface portions of the flange 4 'because the radius of theare portion 10* which is adjacent to the flange is smaller than that ofthe curvature of the opposite surface 11 of the flange 4. This makes themovement of the traveler unstable. The tilting motion is due to the muchtoo great radius of the arc portion 12 of the traveler which guides thethread. This tilting motion may even cause temporary engagement of theend 13 of the left part of the traveler with the outer surface of theweb portion v14 of the spinning ring. The end portion 15 of the rightpart of a traveler of the configuration shown in FIG. 2 may engage thelower inner portion 16 of the flange 4 of the spinning ring whichportion connects the surface portion ll on which the traveler normallyrests and the inner surface of the Web portion 14 of the spinning ring,which engagement is very undesirable. The traveler 17 shown in FIG. 3has a more flat center portion than the traveler 9 shown in FIG. 2.Aside from the tilting effect of this configuration, it also reducesremoval of frictional heat because the radius of the arc portion of thetraveler which engages the flange of the spinning ring is much greaterthan the radius of the curvature of the engaged part of the flange sothat the engaging surfaces are small and little heat is conducted fromthe traveler into the spinning ring.

The elliptic spinning ring 18 shown in FIG. 4 has a somewhat more.favorable configuration because it is more elongated than the ringsshown in FIGS. 2 and 3 and is less likely to tilt. This traveler,however, forms a rather narrow tapered space between the inner uppersurface 19 of the flange of the spinning ring and the arc portion 20 ofthe traveler which guides the thread so that the latter may 'be clampedbetween the ring and the flange.

The traveler 21 shown in FIGS. and 6 has a much more favorableconfiguration and avoids the disadvantages of conventionalconfigurations. The radius p of the arc portion 22 of the traveler whichengages the flange of the spinning ring corresponds exactly to that ofthe curvature of the lower inner surface of the flange which is engaged'by the traveler. The center of the circle including the surface of thetraveler which engages the flange of the spinning ring, coincides withthe center of the circle a portion of which coincides with the curvatureof the lower inner surface of the. flange of the spinning ring and isdesignated by Z in FIG. 6. The are portion 22 extends through an angleea of at least 65 between points A and B. The are portion 22 continuesupwardly into an intermediate portion 23 which will be described laterand whose upper end continues into an arc portion 24 which guides thethread. The distance b between the center Z of the portion 24 and thecenter Z of the arc portion 22 amounts to about 1.15 p and thevertical'distance a between the diameter extending through Z and B andthe center Z amounts to about 0.3 p. The radius R of the arc portion 24is approximat-sly 2.15 p. The lower end C of the arc portion 24 isplaced on a line extending through Z and being inclined to the line Z Bat anangle p. The upper end D of the arc portion 24 is located at theend of a'radius Z D which is spaced from the radius Z 0 at an angle 7 ofapproximately 45. The traveler is symmetrical and the left portionis-mirro-symmetric to the right portion, the two end portions beingconnected by an intermediate portion 25 preferably so shaped that thelocation of the center of gravity of the traveler best suits the flangenumber I or II with which the traveler cooperates. The same is the casewith the end portion 26 continuing beyond the point A tangentially ofthe circle having the radius p whereby the inclination of the portion 26is defined by the angle a. When the traveler is used to cooperate withflange number II, the angle a is preferably increased to about 80 to 85whereas this angle amounts to about 65 in travelers which are used torun on flange number I. The intermediate part 23 of the traveler extendsat point B tangentially from the arc portion 22 until the portion 23intersects the circle around the center Z with the radius R, theconnection of the arc portion 23 to the arc portion 24 being smoothed.The portion 23 which is substantially parallel to the axis of symmetry Sof the traveler is of great importance because it produces a muchgreater diversion between the inner upper surface of the flange of thespinning ring and the inner surface of the traveler than is produced bya traveler, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, so that the thread whenbeing wound on the top 7 of the conical portion 5 of the cop 6 and whenthe resultant of the thread tension is great may move quite far downwithout danger that the thread be clamped between the traveler and thespinning ring.

Theoretically, a differently shaped traveler would have to be used fordiiferent spinning conditions defined by the relative geometricarrangement of the parts. The travelers shape according to the inventionhas been found on the basis of conventional arrangements. In order tochange the position of the traveler as little as possible, if thetraveler is used in connection with a different arrangement, the threadruns through the traveler according to the invention at a much lowerelevation than it would run through conventional travelers so that the rsultant moment of the thread force'with respect to the center of gravityof the support of the traveler is small.

We claim:

1. A traveler having an elongated configuration for coperation with aspinning ring having a flange whose cross sectional configurationincludes an oblong head portion whose long axis is normal to a verticalweb portion having parallel walls, the lateral ends of the head portionbeing convex and substantially semicircular, the lower ends ofthesemicircles being connected to the web by downwardly slanted linesplaced at an angle of with respect to the vertical, the traveler havingan arcuate portion sliding on the flange of the spinning ring andextending over at least 65, the radius of said arcuate portioncorresponding to the radius of the curvature of the lower inner surfaceportion of the flange of the spinning ring on which the traveler runs,the traveler having a second arcuate portion for guiding the thread, theradius of said second arcuate portion being approximately 2.15 times theradius of the curvature of the lower inner surface of the flange of thespinning ring on which the traveler runs, the distance between thecenter of the arcuate portion guiding the thread and the center of thearcuate portion sliding on the flange being approximately 1.15 times theradius of the curvature of the lower inner surface of the flange of thespinning'ring.

2. A traveler according to claim 1 wherein the vertical distance betweenthe centers of said arcuate portions amounts substantially to 0.3 timesthe radius of the first arcuate portion.

3. A traveler as defined in claim 1 having a symmetric configuration,and intermediate portions individually interposed between said arcuateportions guiding the thread and said arcuate portions sliding on theflange of the spining ring, said intermediate portions beingsubstantially parallel to the axis of symmetry of the traveler.

4. A traveler as defined in claim 1 wherein said arcuate portion guidingthe thread extends over approximately 45 5. A traveler according toclaim 4 wherein the radius of the lower end of the arcuate portionguiding the thread is at an angle of approximately 15 with respect tothe radius of the upper end of the arcuate portion sliding on the flangeof the spinning ring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,121,378 Lancaster Dec. 15, 1914 2,772,535 Kobayashi Dec. 4, 1956FOREIGN PATENTS 525,167 Great Britain Aug. 22, 1940

